MOBILE, Alabama — A second-grade teacher at Cottage Hill Christian Academy was arrested this week after a disturbing video surfaced on social media showing her striking her 12-year-old child more than 20 times in seconds. Authorities identified the woman as 44-year-old Randi Nicole Staples, who was honored as Teacher of the Year at the school in May.
According to the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, Staples is the mother of the child seen in the video. The footage, reportedly recorded by another sibling inside the home, shows Staples hitting the boy with a belt-like object, lifting him by his hair, and shouting profanity. The video circulated briefly on Facebook before being taken down.
Investigators say Staples was arrested and booked into Mobile Metro Jail on a felony charge of willful abuse of a child under 18. Sheriff Paul Burch described the conduct as “repulsive” and emphasized that the actions went far beyond discipline. He noted that the final strike in the video hit the child’s arms…